How to Read the Bible

Afterword: Reading the Bible as a Committed Jew

Afterword Reading the Bible as a Committed Jew Thus far I have written this book in my “scholarly” mode, emphasizing what the Bible meant in its time and place. I have emphasized the importance of the historical-critical method, which encourages me to present facts about antiquity as I understand them. In so doing, I have attempted to mask my personal beliefs. These beliefs should not matter—one’s own religion (or lack thereof) should not decisively impact how one understands the Hebrew Bible in its original environment. Many who have just completed this book would guess that I, as its author, lack religious convictions altogether. After all, it is easy to read the previous pages as an acute case of “Bible bashing.” I have emphasized the composite nature of the Bible, treating it as a human, rather than a divine, work. I have contextualized it in the ancient Near East, rather than treating it as a timeless book. I have made the following claims: the beginning of Genesis is a “myth”; the Exodus did not happen; and Joshua did not fight the battle of Jericho and make the walls come tumbling down. Further, I have stated that much of the material in the Bible’s historical texts is not historical; that not everything found in the work known as Amos (or Isaiah, or Jeremiah, or Ezekiel) was written by Amos (or Isaiah, or Jeremiah, or Ezekiel); and that David composed none of the psalms. I have asserted that not only is the Song of Songs a secular work, but that much of the Bible is also, for it was influenced by (secular) ideology as much as by religion. I am, in fact, an observant Jew. I take the Bible quite seriously in my personal life. It is not merely a book from which I make a living (as a teacher and author). Rather, it stands at the core of who I am as a person, and as a Jew. There is no single way to place the Bible at one’s core. Indeed, the ways of viewing the Bible as a religious text are at least as numerous as the people who puzzle it out. Thus, I do not intend what follows as the way to reconcile the scholars’ critical approach with a religious (Jewish) life. Instead, I simply wish 279 to explain how I negotiate not merely what the Bible meant (the subject of the previous chapters), but also what the Bible means to me. From Sourcebook to Textbook In a nutshell, here is my view of the Bible as a Jew: The Bible is a sourcebook that I—within my community—make into a textbook. I do so by selecting, revaluing, and interpreting the texts that I call sacred. “Sourcebooks” are not the same as “textbooks.” A sourcebook, by nature, presents many perspectives, whereas a textbook—in order to be cogent—adopts a particular point of view. An economics textbook that was both Keynesian and Marxist, or an introductory literary textbook that was both new-critical and deconstructivist, would be confusing, as confusing, indeed, as the Bible itself. However, a broad-minded professor teaching “Introduction to Economics” could create a sourcebook showing a variety of approaches, including the Keynesian and the Marxist. Likewise, a good literature professor might compile readings that encouraged students to analyze the same text from competing theoretical perspectives. The Bible as it presents itself, “off the shelf,” is a sourcebook. It comes from many places and times; it conveys the interests of many different groups. Within it, we can find more than one opinion on almost any single item of importance —the nature of God, the corporeality of God, intergenerational punishment , the relationship between men and women, the attitude toward foreigners, retribution, etc. In this sense, the Bible is surely more sourcebook than textbook .1 Yet, in order to take the Bible seriously in my religious life—as a guide for various issues—I must make it into something more authoritative. Guidebooks do not say: at the fork in the road, take either a right, a left, or turn around. Rather, they make decisions, they choose between options. Thus, when I confront the Bible as a practicing Jew, I transform it into a more monolithic book. Selection As noted, I make the Bible into a textbook in several ways. The simplest is through “selection”—choosing one of the options that the Bible offers. How and why I make those choices is a complicated...